I've started something Good

I am so excited after last night. The first well attended gathering of the Stitch n Bitch (now Knit an Nosh**) it is great!!! I advertized on JANGLO (although I really would like to get Hebrew Speakers to come, you have to start somewhere.) And I had six other people come, plus a reporter for Haaretz AngloFile.

The group of people who came were great...some skilled knitters, some new, but everyone had a great time, and wants to come back.

The group will be meeting the First and Third Mondays of the month from 8:00-9:30.

**A note about the name...I offended a few of the more religous people in the group, so I've decided to change the name externally, and let people call it what they want in private.

Doing for Myself

Lately I can count the weeks where I don't leave our neighborhood. Since my job is right here, I go from home to childcare to work to childcare to home. Tonight I got out, and it was very refresshing.

I decided to start a "Stitch N Bitch" group for Jerusalem. There was one, but it is on hiatus, so I decided to fill a need. I didn't overly publicize it, but we held it at a new cafe, called "Cafe on the Rails." It is run by Akim which is a place for developmentally disabled young adults. This worked out well for two reasons: 1) They are new, so it isn't so busy (actually tonight it was very busy) and 2) They don't have the expectations of great turnover, so you can nurse one drink for the evening.

Well, only two other people showed up, (one to say she couldn't come) but it still was nice. I got to not talk about work related things, knit and just enjoy myself! I'm sure once I spend more time in publiczing it people will come.

Sometimes it is important to give time to oneself.

A true Kashrut Nightmare!

So they look like apples right....and all fruit and vegetables are kosher right....ok, so not including all the broccoli issues.

But SUPRISE...the are not kosher because they are soaked in Concord grape flavoring.

So now you can't even feel safe letting your child eat fruit at a non-Jew/non-kosher keeper's house.

Move to Israel all....this is the sign :)

NOTE: I think I'm the first of the J-bloggers to cover this...maybe it will get me on a blogging roll...

So are you still looking for a job?

Well, I guess the answer is yes...until something permanent comes along.

Two days ago I had an interview at Yad Ben Zvi which is a research institution. (Yes, a LIBRARY....a real LIBRARY!) I thought there was no way they would hire me...my Hebrew isn't good enough, they want me to catalog etc... But, she told me to come back the next day to meet the director. I thought it was just a courtesy. So I came back the next day and met the director. For some reason the woman who had originally interviewed me started speaking to me in English (I don't do interviews in English, unless everyone is an English speaker). He told her not to, and I never switched to English. It turns out the director and I had some common "bonds"

• I volunteered in Beit Shemesh, and he is from Beit Shemesh.
• I learned at Pardes Institute, and he taught there.

Anyway, he said if he could get money for an internship for me from the Department of Immigration (Misrad HaKlita) then he would take me immediately, but he needed to see what they can do...

He handed me the Annual report for the institution (in Hebrew, of course) and told me to get practicing my Hebrew. I guess this is a good sign.

I'm not going to think about what I will do with my commitment to the Jewish Agency. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Work....

So now I've been working there for almost a month and a half. I like what I'm doing, although I don't know if I ever would have chosen this.

The biggest event of the year is coming up the end of this week...we are running a TU B'Shvat Seder Megaconference for schools in North America, the UK and Israel. For about 4 days I will be working until between 10-Midnight! I don't know if my husbandwill be able to handle picking up the kids etc...
My piece in this has been

1. Contacting the schools to enlist their participation
2. Receiving applications and setting the timeslots (about 4 per day over 3 days)
3. Organizing teleconferences so the participants can connect beforehand
4. Ordering supplies (everything from paper cups to trees

Some things I enjoy, others are torture.

An example of torture was ordering dried fruit from "Shlomo." Here is how it went

Me: Hi Shlomo, we haven't received your price quote for the fruit yet.

Shlomo: How can I give you the price quote, the prices change every day..if I say too low then I will lose money, and if I say too high then it will be "gezel" (theft)

Me: Shlomo, we've worked with you before, we trust you....just write on the form that you will actually charge us the cost you pay.

Shlomo: You mean just pick a number out of the air?

Me: Yes, we trust you.

So now he is charging us 20 shekels a piece for pineapple....

EN DEN DINO

The fun part about being a new immigrant mom, is that you learn all sorts of new songs. The big girl came home with EN DEN DINO this past week. Basically it is the Hebrew version of "eenie meenie miney mo".

This was better than trying to figure out why she was shouting "ink, ink" in Hebrew......later I learned that "Deeo" means giddy up.

Update: Here is a more amusing version of En Den Dino. By the way who is Yehuda Carmel?

Work Has begun

I've started working at "the Sochnut" aka The Jewish Agency. On the plus side, they are very family friendly, they are a three minute walk from our apartment, and the wages are reasonable.

On the downside, December is a tough month to start....Hanukkah parties, children off from childcare, they have weird hour needs (I could be there now (10PM) seeing MK Amram Mitzna, and it is only temporary. I'm sure it will all work out....

The words of Alon Pinkas

I'm a big fan of Alon Pinkas, the former consul-general to New York (with the exception of his comb-over). I think he was one of the best spokesmen for Israel that I have seen. There is an interesting article in the Jerusalem Post where he speaks about public relations and the US. Unfortunately I think he is right....the US Jewish community can't put the blame on Israel, but on the lack of education about Israel which has been given to the youth.

I know I wasn't prepared to deal with the "General Union of Palestinian Students" (GUPS) at UWM when I went to graduate school. I had just spent nearly two years in Israel, and still didn't have the answers I needed

(Nor was I ready for the map in the computer lab which showed the Mid-East with Israel not labeled (it kind of looked like it was part of Lebanon).
Come to think of it, how did I end up at a School of Library and Information Science which publishes this? Well it looks like it hasn't been published since 2001, so I guess progress has been made!

Any thoughts on what the American Jewish Community can do?

Gmail

Anyone interested in trying a gmail account? I have three to give away. The first three comments will get an account.

I enjoy it...I do prefer folders though.

Vidlit/Yidlit

This site is a must see! The videos are funny and great to watch. If you are on a dial-up connection, find a friend! This one is about Learning Yiddish. All of them have been great. If I had any money, I'd make a donation.

Employed at last...Temporarily at least

The job search has been an ongoing battle for me. I had a decent temporary job before Ariella was born, and since then I've done some temp work from home for the Shalem Center (they really like me, too bad they don't have any appropriate positions for moms).

I've been interviewed and offered a job by my dream company, but the hours and salary weren't feasible to also be a mom.

Then I was offered a job by my favorite former workplace in Israel, but it was only part time, and financially wouldn't cover for childcare.

Well, now I have it! A full time job which is located literally a five minute WALK from my home, which pays enough to cover childcare. The only down-side, is that it is a maternity leave position. This means currently it goes from December through March. There is the potential for a permanent job opening up, but I won't know until February. The place is called the Contact Center, and I'll give more information when I know what I'm doing.

The three year old speaks...

This conversation took place after our post shabbat dinner of oatmeal. (Please no comments....we enjoyed it)

She: Eeema, we didn't have meat, right??
Me: That's right
She: So you can have **Milky or Ice Cream.
Me: Ummm yes I can.
She: I want Milky

**Milky is an Israeli desert which is kind of like an instant pudding. Just for the record, we don't buy Milky brand anymore because they still use Beef Gelatin (which is kosher here, but if you can get something without it,--that tastes just as good, why not.)

How to teach children about strangers?

I think it is nearly impossible to teach children about strangers in Israel. Israelis think of each other as one giant extended family as today's story points out.

I was on the bus with both of my young ladies when the woman sitting behind me offered my SIX MONTH OLD a slice of an apple. Excuse me, she doesn't have any teeth.....and I don't know you!!!! So then she handed it to my older daughter (3 1/2 years old). So do I let her have it? I still don't know this woman.

Well right or wrong, I let her have it. Sigh.

This is my only comment on Arafat's demise

Palestinian People here is a cartoon for you.

Never a dull moment

Not knowing that it was a holiday today. I took my usual Thursday shopping trip. On the way, I saw the busses and remembered is was
Sig'd, well actually I didn't know the name, but I knew there is a Ethiopian holiday where they all gather on the Tayelet. Which is around the corner from my home.

The supermarket was packed with Ethiopian Teenagers. I noticed lots were buying the cheap wine and vodka. I started wondering if there was an alcoholism problem in the Ethiopian community. There was an announcement over the loudspeaker reminding the teens that alcohol purchases are illegal to people under age 18.

I still managed to get out of there quicker than usual, but it was quite a sight.

Update: I went to the ceremony with a friend. It was spectacular. The Kes (spiritual leaders) were up on a stage shaded by colorful fabric umbrellas. The women were in traditional white gowns with bright color embroidery. The Kes lead the prayers in Amharic while the people said Amen.

When the torahs were carried away, they were on people's heads, lead by the Kes. The people crowded around, clapping and drumming. It was a beautiful sight and I feel privileged to see it. There weren't many non-Ethiopians who were present at the event.

Note:
Before they carried the Torahs away, there was a young man who got up to speak. He said he was born in Ethiopia and made aliyah at age 5. His father never came to Israel and his mother died when he was in first grade. He spoke about the problem of the younger generation, and how they were in danger because of alcohol. He said they needed to be shown that they could succeed. I know that the Ethiopians do have problems in school, and this didn't surprise me, but I was glad to see that the community sees there is a problem and are discussing it. That is the first step.

Voodoo Handwarmer

Voodoo Handwarmer. Yup, I made this too...it isn't so good, but it is warm. I got the pattern from Knitty an online knitting magazine.
Note to anyone with very tsnius sensibilities, the Summer 2004 might be offensive(no skin showing though). But I kind of like the idea of knitting with licorice.

Update to Getting Out of Business

Update to Getting out of Business

I'm out I'm out!!!! The electricity was paid, the cleaner was paid...I have 9 shekels remaining from the money I collected.

The last insult was when I collected money from one person who did pay, his response was...it is good you aren't doing this any more...the cleaner wasn't doing a good job! This is the same person who throws his junk mail on the ground rather than throwing it away.

Hmmpf.

Playdough Packaging

This is the package information for the playdough given to my big girl at childcare. The colors were pretty cool...

Glitter..Colorful Plasticity Mud

"To keep the colour mud wetting, please put it into the any immediately after you use it, then cover it. If the colour mud became hard, you can drop some drops of water on it, then mix them in order to re-softer the mud.

Don't wash the clothes at once when they are stainde with mud, please brush them after the mud is entirely dried.

Colorful-plasticity by and mode lling compound is comptetety nontoxic and is not in tanded to be eaten as food"

Look Mom, I can Knit!!!

I knit that sweater...it is the first sweater I ever made! I don't think I'll keep it for the young lady, but I still need buttons. I learned how to make this sweater from Shoshanna...an Israeli woman in the knitting group I went to.

Getting out of the Business

Getting out of the business

Well, I've been the person in our building collecting money for the electricity in the stairwell for about 9 months, and this month that comes to a close. All buildings are required to have a "vaad bayit" (building committee) which takes care of these things, but ours doesn't. All was going reasonably well, until I decided to heed the comments by my neighbors that the stairwell really needed a cleaning. I found someone to clean, and started collecting for that. Unfortunately that lead to a very nasty run in with one of the only residents that actually owns her apartment. Everything then fell apart. I may be able to collect exactly enough to pay off the cleaner (at the most I'll be out 50 shekels...about 12 dollars). I'll let someone else be the "freier**"(aka Sucker) for the building!

** For a good explanation of the term, go to This American Life and search the archives for "sucker". Act 3 is called "Suckers in the Promised Land"